Sausage & Lentils

Sausage & Lentils is a classic combination and offers a great way of using up ingredients in your fridge and store cupboard. The list of ingredients you see below is just an improvisation I did this evening, you can use so many combinations of vegetables and flavours in this dish. It really is versatile. You could add some peas, mushrooms or sweetcorn. You could replace the pancetta or leave it out altogether. You could replace the wholegrain mustard with some crushed fennel seeds or some Worcestershire sauce for extra flavour. You could use garlicky Toulouse sausages or spicy Genovese for a change. You could add also some grated Parmesan cheese. Just don’t use all of these things at the same time! 🙂

Of course, you could use dried puy lentils as they don’t take very long to cook, but I just find the canned green lentils incredibly handy. Very nutritious too.

Ingredients

pancetta, small piece chopped (or 6 rashers streaky bacon)

6 good quality sausages

1 medium onion, finely chopped

2 sticks celery, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 sprig fresh rosemary, finely chopped

400g can chopped tomatoes

2 x 400g cans green lentils

250ml chicken stock

1 tbsp wholegrain mustard

salt & pepper

baby spinach leaves, a handful

fresh flat-leaf parsley

Method

Heat a little olive oil in a heavy saucepan. Add the pancetta or bacon and fry until golden and some of the fat has been rendered out. Remove the bacon and set aside.

Add the sausages to the pan and fry until they’re golden. Remove the sausages and set aside.

Add the onion, celery, garlic and rosemary and fry briskly until the vegetables are coloured nicely.

Return the sausages to the pan and add the canned tomatoes, stock, mustard and lentils. Reduce the heat and simmer gently for about 8 minutes, or until most of the liquid has evaporated.

Stir through the spinach leaves and some chopped fresh parsley. Season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Serve.

I used “2 x 400g cans green lentils”, but you can use dried puy lentils if you prefer. I would not try this with red lentils to be honest, sausage and green lentils is the classic. If you try it, let me know how you get on.

Had a reciept for lentils and sausage and couldnt find it. Stumbled opon this one while surfing. I do have to say that this turned out great! Excelent flavor and textures, loved it. I changed a couple of things but followed about 80% of your reciept.
Thanks for sharing.